Alabama Hostage Crisis Stretches Into Day 5

An Alabama man holding a terrified young boy hostage in an underground bunker might not be giving up any time soon.

According to the New York Daily Times, Police have been negotiating through a 4-inch ventilation pipe with the man, believed to be Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65,a Vietnam veteran and retired truck driver with a wicked temper and a history of threatening neighbors.

The boy he is holding, identified as Ethan, is physically unharmed but has repeatedly cried out for his parents and wants to go home, Alabama police said. The bunker on Dykes’ property is equipped with water and electricity. Dykes has allowed authorities to pass down coloring books and medication to treat the child’s Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit disorder, according to State Rep. Steve Clouse.

Neighbors and court records indicate that Dykes has a history of violent and erratic behavior. He once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe for straying onto his property.

Dykes apparently grabbed the boy at random after a violent confrontation on a packed school bus Tuesday. Armed with a gun, Dykes stopped the bus and demanded two boys, ages 6 and 8, leave with him. The driver of the bus, Charles Albert Poland, Jr., was shot and killed when he tried to intervene. Hoping for a safe ending.